


You Make My World Spin (Or Maybe It Was Just the Blow to My Head)

by Anika_Ann



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Cuteness overload, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, Pepper Potts is a saint, Pining, Pop Culture, Reader-Insert, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Steve Rogers and the 21st Century, Strangers to Lovers, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Writing Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:15:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23533654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anika_Ann/pseuds/Anika_Ann
Summary: After the Battle of New York and all the mess Tony gets involved in, Pepper believes he is in a need of an assistant slash tech genius. Enter You. While Tony is not amused by Pepper’s idea at first… he soon warms up to you.Mostly because he gets a kick from how your mere presence turns Steve’s brain into a mass of uncooperative jelly. Comedy material, really.Prompt: “Sorry… your hair was in your face… thought I would move it so I could see you better.” For #Kaytees1000FollowerChallenge.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Original Female Character(s), Steve Rogers/Reader
Comments: 6
Kudos: 149





	You Make My World Spin (Or Maybe It Was Just the Blow to My Head)

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: a bit of swearing, mild injury and blood, pseudoscience, mentions of intercourse, Tony being a little s* and two dummies on their way to be in love being dummies… oh also Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers and other pop culture references. Yep, that’s right. You’re welcome.
> 
> Also: Remember this little genius? https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ7JEdF6eGgaS3jVUcg6k5BUgOHGvS3PoAJ7USdnW7jUFL5UNpB9w&s I promise it’s relevant to the story :D

It wasn’t _supposed_ to be happening, but it was; that was the thing about Ms. Virginia Potts. No matter how little Tony was willing to admit it, she was the one having him under her thumb. After all, he _had been_ the one to ask her to run his company.

However, with the whole Earth’s mightiest heroes’ business, fighting, making all of their toys, having _friends_ of sort _,_ Tony had still got way too busy. He was stretched too thin, at least according to Miss Potts, so she decided that he desperately needed an assistant.

And when Pepper made her mind about something… well. Knowing she wouldn’t get a green light for the stunt of hiring a new employee – or looking for one in the first place –, she simply presented Tony with the result.

She had hand-picked ten candidates and announced him that she was about to interview them only about half an hour before the actual start.

Tony was not amused, nor he was happy about it. In the slightest.

The best he could do – after being shut down when claiming he didn’t even _need_ some stupid assistant – was to question her process of hiring staff for _him_ to work with.

“Pepper, darling, you know I appreciate all of your hard work…” he stated carefully, receiving an expectant eyebrow, a silent warning. He probably sounded as if he was trying to approach a so far so calm tiger, who might tear him apart any second if he made too sudden of a movement. Yeah, Pepper could easily turn from a nice purring cat into an apex predator, alright, better watch his tongue around her. “But maybe… shouldn’t I have a say in that since I’m gonna work with that guy… or that woman?”

“Oh Tony…” she replied kindly, a smile spreading on her face as he possibly succeeded in not pissing her off just yet. “I agree with you completely. I only picked the top ten to spare you reading the hundreds of applications. _Of course_ you should have a say! How about 12% of it?”

Okay, forget apex predators, his woman had a memory of a freaking _elephant_. 

Clearly, she wasn’t letting that little quip of his go, like _ever,_ and now he had to sit through interviews with his potential assistants, six so far, men, women, younger than him, _older than him_ — it didn’t even matter. They were all horrendous, the idea of working with them making his skin crawl, something which he wasn’t above showing.

The whole morning, he was making a gagging gesture at Pepper – having the decency to wait for them to leave with Pepper’s kind ‘We’ll let you know’ – as a telling evaluation of each and every one of them.

Frankly, he was exhausted and was feeling like this was just a huge waste of his supposedly precious time. Yes, he had heard all of the candidates’ opinions, asked them about two questions per person – mostly because Pepper was shooting him significant looks, wordlessly yelling at him to show at least _some_ interest –, but he was just about done with this charade.

He might as well let her pick and then seat the kid – or the _senior_ – in the corner of his lab and blatantly ignore them.

Patting the armrests of the chair he was basically lying in at that point, he climbed to his feet the very same moment the door clicked shut behind the tall scrawny guy from Stanford who looked like he had just walked out of the movie about squirrels… no, had it been chipmunks? Never mind...

“Alright. I’m outta here. I trust you, Miss Potts. You go and pick the best fit,” he threw over his shoulder, already reaching for the door handle.

“Tony-“

The moment he opened the door, he was met with a back of a woman, shaking with what clearly was an embarrassed laughter. He caught a glimpse of the finger guns she was making at the guy who had just left and probably wished her a good luck. She blindly reached behind herself and leaned her weight towards the door— which was already open.

Tony had learned a long time ago that the law of universal gravitation was the most merciless law of all physics. And she was apparently about to do the same.

Not expecting the absence of support, the said woman fell through, her backside hitting the carpet with a thud, a surprised yelp escaping her lips. Her feet in the purple pumps flew few inches in the air before hitting the ground again.

Tony Stark was intrigued to say at least and he was sure he wouldn’t be the only one once he hired her.

“Oh my god! Are you okay?!” sounded behind him, Pepper’s chair scrapping dully as she jumped to her feet, but their newest candidate only blinked, apparently stunned by the fact she found herself on the floor.

Her eyes slowly followed the line of Tony’s shoes, travelling up, until they reached his face and widened in horror.

“O-oh. _Wow._ I do admire you greatly, but I didn’t think the day would come I’d literally lay at your feet,” she stuttered, heat rising to her cheeks and Tony felt his lips curl up in a smirk. Oh, _now_ he was in love alright.

Clearly, it was Pepper’s turn to be taken aback seeing as she stopped at Tony’s side, the voice of concern dying in her throat.

The other woman’s gaze flickered to her unreadable face and she swiftly clapped her palm over her mouth as if she only then realized what she had said. Tony noticed a bracelet on her left wrist carrying three charms – a Golden Snitch, a Deadly Hallows symbol and a Time Turner.

The woman looked like she wished she could use the last one at the moment.

“Oh my g-- I’m so sorry! That came out even worse than I-“

There was no decision to make really.

“I want her,” Tony finally said what was on his mind basically from the moment he saw her dorky finger guns.

“Tony-“ Pepper sighed exasperatedly, reaching out only for the billionaire to realize he should probably help their winner to her feet. Which he did; she reluctantly accepted, visibly gulping and whispering a timid thank you. _Cute._

“Nope, not up to discussion. I definitely want this one. Say, would you solemnly swear that you are up to no good?” he turned to the woman, causing her eyes twinkle and simultaneously rending her speechless, which gave Pepper another opportunity to chastise him.

_“Tony!_ I apologize on his behalf, please, come on in-“

“She kinda is already in,” Tony remarked as the door closed. “Come on, Miss Potts, there’s no decision to make. She has some sort of a galaxy brain, I can tell. She’ll fit right in.”

“Let’s start the interview, I’m Pepper Potts, this is Tony Stark-“

Tony squinted at his beloved, his mind racing as she continued the usual procedure. She wouldn’t budge. Well, he might as well run with it.

“Yeah, exactly, and I was just coming to get you to invite you in,” he sent a brief smile in the woman’s direction and Pepper sighed again, yet didn’t comment, shaking the other woman’s hand while she introduced herself.

Naturally, they did end up hiring her and Tony didn’t bother covering his growing smirk as she turned out to be not only the craziest, but also the most qualified candidate.

The game was on.

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

Steve tried and wiped his palms to his jeans again, annoyed and ashamed at just how much they were sweating. It was nothing short ridiculous how nervous he was.

One glance through the reinforced glass that served as a wall separating the lab area from the stairwell and elevator was enough though as he was reminded just _why_ his body reacted like that _._

Her hair was in the typical messy bun, several strands hanging loose, framing her face… and shielding it from his view, enough to make his fingers twitch with barely containable need to tuck them behind her ear.

She might have been hunched over her latest work, but she was still teasing him to take a proper look all over her figure, head to toe, the gentle curl to her messy hairstyle, the lines of her face – as much he could see of it anyway, _dammit –,_ the strangely elegant curve to her spine despite her position, legs cladded in tight jeans, calling for his eyes to check out places he _shouldn’t_ should he remain a gentleman, her feet lightly tapping, in a pair of no doubt comfortable Converse.

And he shouldn’t even let himself even start on the area he had purposely saved for the last; of course he had been offered another mystery as he eyed her t-shirt.

Today, it was a V-neck one – because of course he needed another thing to tease him and torture him –, reading ‘Never forget the first rule’ with a hand holding… a piece of block soap? Most definitely another movie reference he didn’t get; with annoying regularity, not failing once since she had started working with Tony four months ago, she wore these t-shirts, just another way of driving him insane with curiosity about her.

Steve made a mental note to google up (was that the term?) ‘first rule’ and ‘soap’ and possibly add the movie to his list, perhaps to strike a conversation with her.

Because that’s what he was trying to do and mostly failing; to have a normal longer-than-two-minutes conversation alone with her. He just wanted to talk to her was all… sort of.

He wanted to know her; learn how to be the cause of that breath-taking smile she could charm.

He wanted to touch her, all the things his ma’ had taught him about being a gentleman threatening to be thrown out of the window.

He _wanted her_ and judging by the smug grin Tony had on his face whenever the three of them ended up in the same room, he wasn’t exactly subtle about it. But sue him. She was _perfect._

And after several – read _way too many –_ jabs and snarky remarks Tony had made while she had been standing _right there,_ appearing adorably confused about what the hell was Stark getting at, Steve had promised himself that once the opportunity arose and it was just the two of them, he _would_ make a move and – surprise surprise – that was apparently happening today.

Hence his extremely sweaty palms.

For God’s sake, he wasn’t even sweating that much when he went for a run! What the hell, Dr.Erskine? How did _that_ work?!

Taking a deep breath, he mentally kicked himself to start walking the very same moment she looked up in his direction, sending him a brief smile. His heart nearly gave out when she beckoned with her hand, the corners of her lips rising higher.

Oh man, he was so utterly _fucked._ He needed to pull himself together.

The glass door slid open and she greeted him instantly.

“Hey, Steve! Come in, come in- we have some work to do!”

Yeah, he surely did. He needed to work up the damn courage to tell her she was absolutely stunning, effortlessly beautiful, and that he wanted to ask her out… or whatever kids called it these days.

“Hey, Gee-Gee,” he replied in earnest, making her chuckle and groan at the same time as he used her nickname.

It might have been dorky, but he kinda liked it, especially as it was shortened from the original name, ‘GadGet’, which was something Clint called her. The archer had even forced Steve to sit through few episodes of Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers to make him understand just why he had come up with the nickname for her.

It hadn’t sat right with Steve, making him feel like he was calling her an inanimate object, so he took the liberty of alternating it. It was _his_ nickname for her and she didn’t seem to hate it, which warmed his heart and gave him a bit of hope.

Steve couldn’t deny there were similarities to Gadget Hackwrench; for one, Gee-Gee was utterly and completely brilliant, two, she often babbled with the speed of light and left the team members baffled as she was sharing info on the _gadgets_ she and Tony had come up with, and third, she was blissfully oblivious to Steve tripping over himself whenever she was around.

“One of those days, I’m going to ban Clint from watching Disney just for that. You’re lucky you’re cute and I actually happen to like it.”

Oh. Gee-Gee thought he was cute?

Steve wasn’t sure how much of a compliment that was, seeing as he probably should be perceived as strong, heroic, _handsome_ or whatever, but he would take ‘cute’ as long as he would get a yes for his proposal. _Date proposal,_ that was.

He would have to start _talking_ first though and that was proving to be difficult after her remark.

She shook her head as he came to a stop few feet from her, praying to God she would say something to interrupt the awkward silence.

Gee-Gee cleared her throat, taking one of the objects on the table – some sort of a glove, or a sleeve, really, holding it out for him.

“Here. This is for your arm – well, _forearm,_ you get what I’m saying. It’s from nanofibers, they are quite elastic, so it should fit. This is just a prototype, we would make two of those, of course,” she started her rapid fire of words and Steve couldn’t but smile at that, even if his serum powered brain had to make some serious effort to keep up with her. “I recommend your right arm first seeing as you’re 70% right-hander, though I guess it’s about your preference, you are 30% ambidextrous after all.”

He gingerly took the sleeve from her, their fingers brushing and his gaze flickered to her face to see her put the disobedient strands of her hair in place in a nervous tick, her eyes meeting his for the shortest moments before swiftly moving away and focusing on the sleeve.

She had been right, of course – it did fit, not stretched to its full capacity, and felt good on his bare forearm despite the fact he would wear it over his uniform as he assumed. 

“That’s for my shield, correct? Some sort of a holder?” he asked, curiosity piqued.

“That would be correct, Captain. Can I?” she hummed, reaching for his forearm and he didn’t hesitate to nod; she adjusted the sleeve a bit, shifting it so certain area was on the outside when he flexed his elbow.

Steve tried hard not to think about the strangely pleasant sensation of warmth that spread in his chest at her unusual addressing for him and at the familiar squeeze his heart gave when she touched him. It was getting hard to focus as her fingers danced over his forearm, pointing out two smaller patches; his mind once more wandered to the idea of her touching him like that on a different occasion, on a _date_ for one, a date he still hadn’t asked about. His mouth felt uncomfortably dry as she kept talking, explaining what was the whole invention about.

“See? There are two electromagnets which your buddy here-“ She a made a show of patting the shield laid on the table, her touch leaving his forearm and sadly never returning. “-will stick to, because we added magnets of opposite poles there. They are very light, they shouldn’t affect the trajectory of your shield when you throw it at all, and seeing as I designed them with a little help from our resident Doctor Banner, no magnetic fields should interfere with them. Of course, you don’t need to worry about the magnets attracting any other metals, that should come without saying, but I think it’s kinda important to mention it. So, now we need to come up with the gesture you’re about to use to activate the magnets.”

Steve simply stared at her, astonished for the hundredth time he had met Gee-Gee. She had… _designed_ magnets with special attributes? Sure, she admitted having Banner’s help, but _still._ Her brilliance had no freaking limit.

All of sudden, a heavy stone seated itself in Steve’s stomach, as heavy as the realization which hit him. God, he couldn’t ask her out, could he? She would never say yes. She was… she was simply perfect, too smart to go on a date with a guy like him. She was almighty’s most wonderful creation meant for men possessing four times Steve’s intelligence at least.

How could he even stand a chance?

_You’ll never know unless you ask, punk,_ Bucky’s voice echoed in his head, causing him to bit the inside of his cheek.

Gee-Gee was a genius, there was no arguing that; however, she also treated anyone who dared to come closer to her glow with easy friendship, openness and kindness, not to mention her dorky sense of humour, her love for something as ‘simple’ as movies. Certainly, she might… give him a chance at least?

“We even toyed with the idea of calibrating it to your voice; so whenever you would say ‘ _shield’_ and made a certain hand gesture – not like, you know, raised middle finger, not _that_ gesture or something – you know, like certain movement-- because if we leave it on the movement only, you might do it on accident, but if he added the voice thing--- then again, in case that you can’t- not that I want you to get into such situation, God no, but in case you wouldn’t be able to talk for whatever reason, you then wouldn’t be able to call-“

She was babbling again, he knew as much, but he stopped listening to _what_ she was saying about five words in, because she slightly hunched as she was looking at the shield on her work desk, which meant she was facing _down,_ and her hair fell in her face again and it took everything for Steve _not_ to touch-

His resolve faltered, his hand rising on its own account, fingers gingerly tucking the loose strands behind her ear.

Her voice fell silent at instant and Steve’s hand froze, his pulse skyrocketing in horror.

The hell he had just done?!

**“S-sorry… your hair was in your face… thought I would move it so I could see you better,”** he stuttered, wishing for the floor to swallow him the very second the words left his mouth.

He groaned internally. Saying that had _not_ made things better.

Gee-Gee blinked, wide eyes fixed on his face while her own grew hot, but it didn’t—didn’t look like anger, right? Maybe she didn’t… didn’t mind that much?

“Uhm… oh, thanks?” she mumbled and Steve finally, _finally_ realized his hand was still about an inch from her face and quickly retreated it. She dropped her gaze, clearing her throat. “Not like there’s much to see and, eh, really, you should probably be looking at the shield instead-“

Oh, how wrong she was. She was so, _so_ wrong. And he just got his perfect opportunity; hadn’t he _promised_ himself he would ask her out today? There was no better opening he could wish for.

God, if it wasn’t for his stupid nerves and his spectacular awkwardness around beautiful brilliant women.

His right hand went to the back of his neck, scratching it in a sheepish gesture.

_Just_ _spit it out, you Star Spangled Dumbass,_ a voice dangerously resembling Tony Stark yelled in his head.

“Well, you’re here, looking absolutely beautiful and hiding your face behind your hair, so I have a bit of a trouble focusing on my shield-“

The next thing he knew, a beep and a yelp filled the lab and he barely had the time to jerk his hand away before his shield, drawn to the electromagnets in his sleeve, could hit him square in his face with full force. This only hurt a little, the vibranium barely grazing him. And nothing made sense anymore.

What the hell just happened?!

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

You were – for the lack of a better term – _horrified._ And utterly shocked, because _what the hell, Tony?!_

For several seconds, everything in the lab stopped, both of you completely silent, both of you too stunned to move a single muscle.

The moment you saw the first droplets of blood dripping from the wound on Steve’s forehead, you finally unfroze, springing to action.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry! Tony didn’t tell me he already did the voice recognition!” you blurted out, not quite sure what to do with your hands as you approached him, palms hovering helplessly above his arms, his shoulder, reaching out to his head gradually colouring in crimson of his blood. Eventually, you gripped the free forearm and led him to the nearest comfortable flat surface. He needed to get this treated ASAP. “Are you okay? Oh my god, of course you’re not, you’re bleeding—sit down-“

The poor captain seemed absolutely shocked, eyeing the shield glued to the magnets of his sleeve with daze and you were torn between fussing over him and wanting to flee and never _ever_ face him again. On the bright side, he didn’t resist when you put your hands on him and guided him to a stool—no, _no,_ chair would be better just in case he would pass out, _god, oh god,_ you hoped _not-_

You were so utterly _fucked_.

“Here, wait for a second, I’m gonna grab the first aid kit—are you spinning? Do you feel dizzy? You seem a bit dizzy, no offence. How much does it hurt? Can you see only one of me or more? Are you nauseous? Do you feel like passing out? Can you hear me properly? Oh god, I’m such an idiot…” you shot questions in rapid fire while you roamed the lab, getting a hold of the sacred box at last and made your way back to him.

His gaze left the shield, following your movements instead, which was a good sign, you thought. Unless he was about to throw the shield at you, mentally measuring the distance, working out the trajectory. Which… you wouldn’t blame him, even if this stunt was more on Tony than you – he could have at least left a note or something! He had an AI for God’s sake!

With a lump in your throat, you stood before Steve, laying out the supplies. His eyes were still on you as he looked up at your face, offering a perfect view on his injury.

You were such a _dummy_ , you should have figured it out! Of course Tony had installed it in, you had talked about planning on doing that at some point-- shaking your head at your own stupidity, you frowned down at the supersoldier, worrying more with each second he wouldn’t answer any of your questions.

“S-steve? How do you feel?” you pried carefully, catching a piece of gauze with tweezers and dipping it in disinfectant. You grimaced when it nearly made contact with his skin without as much as a warning. _Stupid girl. Your mouth wouldn’t stop, would it, but when it’s time to actually_ say _something, you don’t. Dummy._ “Sorry, this is gonna sting.”

You started from the bottom, wiping the trickle of blood that made its way down his cheek, following it over the crease of his eyebrow and finally reaching the wound.

To your utter relief, he finally spoke up.

“I’m fine,” he assured you, a brief smile passing over his lips. Then, with a chuckle, he reached for the sleeve with the still attached shield to pull it off. “Just took me off guard a bit, to be honest.” 

Momentarily taking your attention off his head, you grabbed the item he handed you and tossed it to the near couch where they landed without making any noise. Then you dropped the bloody gauze, replacing it with a clean one.

Yeah, you bet he was taken aback, alright.

God, you were such an idiot. You couldn’t even look him in the eye after this, like _ever._ You were probably fired for all you knew – hell, _deported._ You hurt Captain America! And what was worse, you hurt the kindest human being that you had the fortune to meet!

“Are you sure you’re not experiencing any serious symptoms?” you asked, worrying your teeth over your lower lip, focused solely on the wound; edges of the cut were slightly raised as it appeared, some contusion around it.

“It’s just a graze, Gee-Gee. Don’t worry, alright? I’ve had much worse,” he assured you softly and you swallowed as your throat went dry. The idea of him having worse was not exactly comforting. “And have I been paying more attention, it could have been prevented. I didn’t listen properly to… to what you were saying. I was distracted. Sorry.” 

You shook your head with a sigh. Why was _he_ apologizing again? He had nothing to be sorry for.

And what did he mean, _distracted? Not paying attention?_ A part of you wanted to be offended at such claim, but for one, you were so not in the position to complain about anything and for two, for some reason, it didn’t feel like an insult.

As you gently wiped the last remnants of blood around the wound, gingerly tapping the gauze for what you hoped was the last time, you caught his gaze, stilling in your movements as much as your heart did.

His blue eyes with just a drop of green were watching you intently, full of wonder, and for some reason, you suspected they hadn’t left your face since you started the procedure.

_‘Sorry… your hair was in your face… thought I would move it so I could see you better.’_

_‘Well, you’re here, looking absolutely beautiful and hiding your face behind your hair, so I have a bit of a trouble focusing on my shield.’_

_‘I was distracted. Sorry.’_

His words rang softly in your ears and you couldn’t quite grasp their meaning. What was there about your face that he felt the need to point it out that much? Why was it distracting him? Why… why would he call you— _beautiful?_

_Well, clearly, he would if he considered you beautiful,_ a voice in the back of your mind explained matter-of-factly, and the way he was looking at you now… this was so damn confusing. He had barely talked to you, never said a word about being _interested_ and why _would he,_ you were Tony’s assistant and that was it. Obviously, there was his nickname for you, as he took the one Clint had come up with and made it _better,_ but still. What-

His fingers gingerly curled around your wrist, the one that seemed to freeze when your eyes met, bringing it down whilst his thumb briefly caressed the soft skin.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly, his eyes searching in your face now, looking for any sign of distress you suspected and it snapped you from the strange reverie, the frantic hammering of your heart subduing a bit; but it still fluttered in your ribcage, more so when his hand didn’t let go of yours, gentle, but firm.

The flutter in your stomach and his word made you grin with the irony of his question and you chastened yourself to get your shit together. He had been hit with his shield, to his _head_ no less, and you were in the middle of treating his injury; one that seemed to be slowly, very slowly pulling itself together.

You watched, fascinated and relieved, as the cut was healing literally in front of your eyes.

Along with the relief coming, your humour returned; and boy, was it liberating.

“You askin’ me? You’re the one who nearly got his skull cracked open…” you teased, at ease as you saw that the wound stopped bleeding entirely. At that point, it appeared to be more of a scratch really, and Steve truly seemed to be more startled by the sudden attack than anything else.

“I wouldn’t call it _that_. It’s nothing,” he coaxed you with a small lopsided smile which you found unfairly adorable.

It _was_ unfair really – of course you considered him attractive. And while you didn’t talk much, you had seen him interact with other people; with consideration and gentleness whenever he assumed the need had risen and with wit and sarcasm had the situation allowed it.

You could tell when he was laughing genuinely, a spark lit up in his eyes, and when he was only doing it for someone’s benefit. He was an undoubtedly handsome man with a good heart. All things considered, you _might_ have been watching him more than it was necessary, definitely more than it was proper.

Then again, if he had called you beautiful, you might have not done anything wrong, had you? Was there… was there a chance of something? The idea would be laughable, Steve being into _you,_ but here you were, his fingers still on your wrist, the world around you as If miles away.

You would be lying through your teeth if you said you minded. In fact, it was… pleasant. _Very pleasant,_ heat radiating from the point of contact, warming you from inside out.

Oh _wow,_ you had it worse than you had thought.

Snapping back to present, you couldn’t but raise your eyebrow at his retort. “Well, this ‘nothing’ was bleeding quite a lot.”

“Head injuries always do,” he shrugged it off, tilting his head to side when you carefully pried yourself from his hold, taking two more gentle swipes to finish cleaning and went to place a band-aid over the scrape without a word.

He smiled up at you gratefully when you did, causing your heart to flip in your chest once more, suddenly in rush again.

“Thank you, Gee-Gee.”

The corner of your lips twitched at the nickname, but you gave him a smile back, momentarily mesmerized by his eyes crinkling in their edges, watching you as if he – for some reason – considered you the eighth wonder of the world.

Yeah, it was definitely unfair. And yeah, there was probably something between you, something unspoken, yet very present.

Then his gaze dropped to your abdomen which was very much on his eye level and he cleared his throat, breaking the spell.

When he spoke up, he sounded… different, as if on edge. 

“Listen, Gee-Gee… uhm… I was wondering-- I wanted to ask you something. And you don’t need to—you don’t have to say yes, of course, don’t feel obliged just because of working for— _with_ Tony and me being _sort of_ friends with him-- just- I wanted to--- eh-“ he stumbled over his words and you cocked your head to side, your smile impossibly widening at the unusual occurrence of him seemingly _flustered_ , shifting nervously in his seat.

You couldn’t help yourself. You _had to_ tease a bit about it, mostly to distract yourself from the silent hope rising in your chest.

“Are you sure it was just a little head bump? You’re babbling, Steve,” you said, pressing your lips together when he opened his mouth and closed it without a word leaving it. You almost felt bad for him, because it was now clear that for whichever reason you still didn’t quite understand, _you_ were the one making him sheepishness incarnated. You levelled yourself with him, partly crouching to meet his gaze. “What is it you wanted to ask?”

You tried very hard not to get your hopes up too much, but they weren’t calling you Gadget for nothing, you weren’t working with Tony Stark because you had batted your eyelashes at him. You had _some_ sense alright and your belly burned with anticipation as you were waiting for Steve to just ask the question you were _craving_ to hear at this point.

His gaze flickered to the floor once more, but then he took a deep breath and looked you straight in the eye, an innocent curve to his lips.

“Would you like to get dinner sometime? Or lunch? Coffee? …something?”

He blurted it out so fast and you couldn’t but admire him. You always had respect for anyone who was brave enough to put the cards on the table first, asking the object of their interest out; it didn’t matter that in the old days, it was bound to be man as long as it was a pair of a man and a woman. It still took a great amount of courage and it had nothing to do with Steve being boosted on some supersoldier serum or not; this was about possibility of a wound that the serum would be powerless against.

So you smiled, a thrill running through your body, delight poured into your veins, and said the only thing that made sense.

“Yes, I’d like either of those things... with you,” you added for a good measure, causing his smile to widen in surprise.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah…” you confirmed, your eyes flickering to the band-aid on his head. “Though are you sure it’s not just the concussion talking? Because-“

Two long fingers covered your lips to spare you another babbling trip and you instantly shut up, a tingle on your lips as he touched them. His fingers slid to cup your jaw then as he rose to his feet, taking you with him with the lightest of pressure under your chin.

“I thought I established you were beautiful _before_ I managed to bang myself up,” he whispered lowly, the touch of his thumb, a brief caress over your cheek, soft in contrast to the callouses on his palm, rendering you speechless.

As if he sucked all of the confidence from the room, you dropped your gaze to his chest, unable to bear the intensity of his delighted smile. With the downward motion, the strands he had expertly tucked behind your ears slipped back into their place, causing him to sigh.

His free hand caught them, twirling one of them on his forefinger, causing your stomach to do a pleasant flip at the casual motion, so natural and _right_ as if he had done it times and times before.

“These drive me crazy, you know that? Hiding your pretty smile like that, your eyes…”

You felt a surge of heat in your cheeks at the compliment, too lost in his touch and words, too overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events to steal some of that courage for yourself.

“You okay? Am I… am I being too forward?” he asked hesitantly as you remained silent and you swiftly snapped your head up, finding him examining your expression.

_Am I? Okay? Not exactly the word I would use… I’m much, muuuuuch better._

How could he _not_ hear your heart beating so fast? Wasn’t he like a supersoldier or something like that?

_Har-fucking-har,_ Gee-Gee _… you’re hilarious._

Thinking of his nickname for you, you managed to charm a smile for him, shakily breathing in and out, finding his inviting eyes more than encouraging at last. Debating yourself, you mentally stomped your foot to get your shit together, and slightly leaned into his palm. How was his touch so damn… nice?

“No, you’re not,” you assured him, causing a new twinkle to appear in his irises. It only encouraged you further, your confidence slowly reappearing. “In fact… if they bother you so much… feel free to fix them anytime.”

Obliging instantly, he returned the strands behind your ear. You rose to your tiptoes and let your lips brush his cheek as a simple thank you.

Steve’s breath audibly hitched. _Oh._ Was that too much?

Retreating painfully slowly as you dreaded what expressions you would see on his face, scolding yourself for being too bold, you learned that you hadn’t overstepped one bit if his beaming smile and wide pupils were anything to go by.

“I just might take you upon that offer.”

Watching you as you withdrew with your teeth worrying over your lip once more – this time to stop yourself from kissing him again when he seemed so on board with whatever was happening –, you could clearly see the mischief lying underneath the gentleman. And you already loved it as it called upon your own.

“Then I just might make my buns messier for both of our sakes.”

Judging by his quiet bark of laughter, he approved.

⊱⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⊰

_“We even toyed with the idea of calibrating it to your voice; so whenever you would say ‘shield’ and made a certain hand gesture – not like, you know, raised middle finger, not that gesture or something – you know, like certain movement-- because if we leave it on the movement only, you might do it on accident, but if he added the voice thing--- then again, in case that you can’t- not that I want you to get into such situation, God no, but in case you wouldn’t be able to talk for whatever reason, you then wouldn’t be able to call-“_

“Blah, blah, blah…” Tony muttered under his breath and pondered fast-forwarding the babbling as he rewatched the record for about seventh time.

_“S-sorry… your hair was in your face… thought I would move it so I could see you better.”_

_“Uhm… oh, thanks? Not like there’s much to see and, eh, really, you should probably be looking at the shield instead-“_

Hopeless. Capsicle was _hopeless_. Good thing Tony had taken the matters to his own hands. Frankly, the outcome was only a bonus to the original goal of messing with the pair. One less thing for Tony to be annoyed at: Rogers’ sickening heart-eyes whenever she was in the room. Tony had enjoyed it at the beginning, seeing the righteous Star-spangled man with a plan lose his footing entirely, awkward and laughable really, but it was getting old.

Kinda like Cap himself.

_“Well, you’re here, looking absolutely beautiful-“_

Ah! Wait for it!!

_“-and hiding your face behind your hair, so I have a bit of a trouble focusing on my shield-“_

Tony burst out laughing again as the shield on the screen flew from its place on the table and hit Cap straight in his face, because he had been dumb enough to unintentionally call it when his hand was behind his head.

Best. Comedy. Material. Ever.

Fuck comedy channels on TV. Tony was about to play this video whenever he needed some pick him up. And the amount of blackmail he would be able to do with that thing…

Wiping the tears of laughter from his cheeks, he scoffed in disgust when the saps on the screen gazed into each other’s eyes, Cap pawing Gadget’s face and playing with her hair.

_Scandalous. Gross._ Tony did not enjoy the rom- part of the rom-com he had managed to capture on camera.

“Don’t you scoff, Tony,” Pepper’s amused voice sounded behind him and his head whipped back, seeing her over the backrest of the couch as she stood in the doorway of the common room, gesturing towards the TV. “You called this upon yourself. You’ve made your bed, lie in it.”

Tony couldn’t but smirk, screen momentarily forgotten as his queen was wearing an elegant ladies suit, hair in a ponytail and looking all serious except for one corner of her lips held upright.

“Will you lie in it with me?” he replied, pausing the record blindly as he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Damn, she was a knock-out, like always.

He would enjoy her lying with him again _very much._ And not just lying. She did yoga on regular basis, alright. That thing was a damn miracle…

She shrugged nonchalantly. “I might if you delete this footage.”

Tony simply gaped and then pouted. She was _not_ playing fair and was showing a bit of claws again. And judging by her smile – _predator, she was a damn predator,_ he swore – she was aware that she was playing downright dirty.

“That’s… that’s blackmail.”

She raised one of her perfectly arched brows. “And the purpose of this footage is _what exactly?”_

“Eeeer…”

Okay, she got him there. She stalked toward him, the damn heels he had a weakness for nearly soundless on the carpeted floor, and while he feasted his eyes on her, she leaned on the backrest of the couch, whispering to his ear.

“I might have forgotten to turn on the washing machine. It means that this morning, I had no underwear to put on left-“

Tony’s jaw went slack with the scandalous announcement, his mind going blank for a second before offering him a generous visual that caused his throat go dry and his pants suddenly feel like getting too tight if his imagination continued delivering.

There was no decision to make, not really.

“You know what, you’re right, who needs a footage of Spangles hitting himself with his shield… JARVIS, delete that, it’s ruined by the disgusting aftermath anyway,” he blurted out as his girlfriend walked out of the room, chuckling.

“As you wish, Sir. You do realize Miss Potts was… mostly pulling your leg, correct?” the AI informed him matter-of-factly with a hint of sass.

Tony didn’t bat an eye, watching with pursed lips as JARVIS worked his magic and erased the real-life comedy.

Yeah, he knew. Pepper was a sneaky one and she simply wanted Rogers to get off the hook – at least partly by getting rid of the evidence. His sweet brilliant CEO… oh, he would show her. Or perhaps she would show him stuff… mm.

“Yep, but it’s the promise that counts. J, I’m going to bed!”

And that he did, the voice of the AI following him as he made his way out, a light jog in his steps.

_“Goodnight,_ Sir. I’ll make sure to engage the soundproof protocol for your room.”

“You do that. Pepper, honey, wait up! It’s gone now, I swear--”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, everyone, for reading!
> 
> Bonus: Who can catch all the references. Obviously, there was the Gadget thing… but what about the others? There are few more: one of books/movies and one brief for another, one to a movie/novel, and one to TV series (but that’s a really hard one, easily overlooked – clue: it’s for the same actor who played in another movie mentioned). I’m gonna shut up now.


End file.
